Pessimism vs Optimism
by Cocoa Sunflowers
Summary: When Holly awakes and finds herself in Fowl Manor, an argument starts. It all starts with a little book and some adventures. No Pairing. One-Shot.


**A/N:  
****There is no ship in this story.  
****I got this idea when I saw the word pessimist on the internet and I immediately thought about A Pessimist's Guide to History, which I read awhile ago, for fun. What better way to honor my ways of pessimism than to make a fic about it.  
****Disclaimer: I don't own Artemis Fowl. The End.  
****When you review, be completely honest. I take all criticism into consideration. You don't have to be nice; I just like to take your comments straight up. No that is not a load of BS I am actually telling the truth.  
****Problems I had with this fic: I had lot's of problems with a bit of the logic, more specifically the mental logic. I also had problems with the flow of the story, as I wasn't sure how it would progress in the last bit. You may notice that it is way more detailed at the start then the middle and end. Sorry if that kind of effects how you feel about the story.**

**EDIT://12:55, Sunday, Jan. 24th: I took some of The One Called Demetra's suggestions into consideration and changed a few things. The description in the first few paragraphs is only slightly toned down. I also made some fixes, editing some errors with the logic and such. Thanks for helping me repair my story a bit Dem.  
**

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**Pessimism vs. Optimism**

Holly Short woke to unfamiliar surroundings.

as soon as her eyes focused, she began to evaluate the place she was in. The extremely white ceiling was nearly perfect which was also was also the case with the trim,. As she continued to lie down completely undisturbed, Holly began to notice that obviously this was not the apartment she was accustomed to opening her eyes to every morning. The obvious difference was that every morning she would wake up to a ceiling with yellow stains in many different places do to the apartments previous occupant's habit of smoking which, because of the smoke and the health issues, was illegal. That never did banish the stains she saw every time she looked up.

She finally got tired of staring at the ceiling and decided to sit up. Sitting up, Holly couldn't help feeling a little dizzy; the result of what she concluded was either being drugged, or sleep deprivation. For some strange reason she was betting on the first option, but couldn't quite be positive. Since she bet that she was drugged, she was rather surprised at whom the person she came face to face with was. What they were doing was no surprise.

Holly saw her friend and ally Artemis Fowl the Second seated on the flowery couch opposite to hers. Of course, at first glance the cleanliness of the room may have given it away that she were indeed in Fowl Manor and although Holly was quite puzzled as to why she was here, she was sure that she should have recognized the room she was in. She crossed her arms as she considered some of the reasons why she would be here, while at the same time wondering why Artemis had not looked up from the book he was reading. It was a rather large book by Holly's standards, and if it was big by her standards it would certainly be nothing to Artemis at the speed he was reading. Finally she gave up pondering and greeted Artemis.

"Hello Mud Boy."

Artemis responded immediately all the while not taking hid eyes off the book. "The 'Mud Boy' greeting is getting quite old Holly. I suggest you start calling me Artemis or be more creative, but if I were you I would not go with the latter."

She rolled her eyes. "You can never greet me by saying a simple 'hello' or 'how's it going?' can you."

He shook his head which was still craned down a little at his lap where the paperback was lying open. "I prefer to get down to the bottom line."

"Whatever. Why am I here anyways?"

Seeing a small smirk play around on his lips, only to disappear a few seconds later, made her a little more ticked off than before. "You don't know?" he asked.

"Just tell me Artemis."

"Well you showed up at my door at around midnight, and were very lucky that I was still awake as I couldn't sleep. After you told me why you were here, I let you in and while I was getting you a glass of water you fell asleep on the couch. Deciding I would rather have a sleeping fairy than a punch on the shoulder, I let you sleep."

Now she remembered. The shuttle ports had all been shut down because of a false flood warning and she had to choose between staying overnight in the cold of E1 or coming to Fowl manor. It wasn't a tough choice. "Right," she muttered.

"I think you should call Foaly and question him about the false warning."

It was Holly's turn to smirk. "Last time we had a false warning, everything was shut down for about 2 days while Foaly was trying to figure out where the warning had come from. I think I have plenty of time."

"Ah," Artemis said. He nodded and re-focused all of his attention to the book he was reading.

She raised her eyebrows. _What was so interesting about this book that keeps Artemis reading?_ There was no use wondering, so she asked the question, even if it was in a different form than the one in her mind. "What are you reading?"

"Nothing interesting," he answered.

His answer didn't satisfy Holly. She got up and took the book from him as she sat down in the empty space beside him. Reading the cover, she was only a bit surprised that Artemis would read such a book, though her judgment was not in reference to the title but to the content one would find inside. "_A Pessimist's Guide to History_, eh?" she asked.

Artemis reached over and took the book from her. "Yes, and I would prefer if you didn't snatch something out of my hand while I was reading it."

Holly held up her hands innocently. "Okay." She smiled and fixed her gaze forward, weighing the possibilities that the twins could walk through the doorway any second.

For awhile Artemis stared at his book, flipping the pages now and then, but finally got tired of feeling Holly's presence and her not talking to him. "I'm astonished that you're not questioning me about the subject of my book."

"It's not that surprising, you are quite the pessimist."

"Am I?"

Holly raised her eyebrows at her friend. "You're seriously asking me that question?"

Artemis replied with half a smile. "I would like to know what exactly makes me a pessimist."

"Well to start you are always seeing worst in any situation were in. and-."

"I'm nearly seeing the logic in the problem we're facing," he interrupted.

She scowled at him and mumbled something under her breath. Artemis' hearing skills were never sharp but he was pretty sure that she said something along the lines of 'Not everything can be solved with logic.'

"You are quite the pessimist yourself, Captain."

She gave him a stern look. "How so?" she asked.

"Let me ask you this. What do you think will happen to the world as we know it?

Holly debated whether to answer the question or not. It could be that Artemis was leading her into an argument that would eventually end with her admitting something, which would be his goal from the beginning. Ignoring her theory, she proceeded to answer his question. "I think that with all the toxins you put in the air, you humans will eventually kill the earth, leading to the extinction of many species, including yourselves and the People." She saw Artemis' smirk and realized she was being a little bit of a pessimist. "After that the earth will replenish itself, possibly spawning a new species that will be the next step in evolution and will not make the same mistakes as the previous occupants."

The genius smirked. "Who will be destroyed when the Sun grows too big, eventually engulfing the Earth in heat no one has ever seen before."

She crossed her arms. "I can't believe you called me the pessimist."

"Oh please Holly, give me the basis of your explanation."

"You 'modern' humans have managed to do more damage to the Earth than other species have managed to do in all the time Earth has existed. It all started with the Industrial Revolution, which could have very well ruined the Earth."

"Good basis." He smiled. Usually Artemis hated admitting someone else was right, but he has to give Holly credit. After all, fairies are more advanced than humans and more environmentally aware.

"Tell me how you got your 'the Sun will destroy the Earth' theory."

He just smiled at her. "The internet and a book."

Holly rolled her eyes and decided to change the subject. "When did this turn into an argument?"

"It is not an argument, it is a debate. I think it started when you called me a pessimist," Artemis said.

The fairy captain tipped her head to the side again thinking. "So who won?"

"Whatever do you mean?"

"Who's the pessimist and who's the optimist?"

It was his turn to roll his eyes. "I believe you beat me in the pessimist category, Holly."

Holly gave him a stare that could bore holes into walls. She finally gave up trying to make him feel guilty and left the room to call Foaly. Meanwhile Artemis went back to reading his interesting, yet depressing book. He was on page 343 reading of yet another man made disaster, the Chernobyl Nuclear Incident. Part of him was thinking that Holly may have been right and like him, was only seeing the logic in things. Maybe the argument wasn't about Pessimism vs. Optimism, but on pessimistic views. Whatever it was, it all started with a little book, or rather the large book he was reading while she was fuming about an argument that shouldn't have spawned. It may not have at all.


End file.
